Robot & Frank

Popular mechanics — Taking your cyber-buddy out for a heist

This isn't
the movie you expect it to be, even while you're watching it. The feature debut
of screenwriter Christopher D. Ford and director Jake Schreier, this modest and
disarmingly sly buddy film masquerades as domesticated science fiction in order
to obfuscate the tender and artful drama that slowly reveals itself.

Frank
Langella is Frank, a retired thief living in rural upstate New York. In his
younger days, Frank was a successful "second-story man" who ended up serving
many years for his crimes. Today, he struggles to remember that his favorite
diner closed years ago. The early stages of dementia have begun to set in. It's
for this reason that Hunter (James Marsden), Frank's son, has brought him a
robotic home health aide (masterfully voiced by Peter Sarsgaard). Needless to
say, the old man isn't particularly happy with his polite but nagging
electronic assistant. That is, until he discovers that the robot could be used
to facilitate a few robberies. Surprisingly, robot goes along with the plan,
believing that such projects will slow his owner's mental and physical decline.

Frank's
modest schemes become grander as he plans to burglarize the mansion of the
condescending millionaire prick who has privatized and technologically updated
the town's aging library. Unfortunately, when a naïve robot and cat burglar
with dementia plan a million-dollar heist the outcome is less than certain.

A rueful
and sometimes funny meditation on aging, memory, connection and sacrifice, Robot
and Frank is filled with characters awkwardly struggling to integrate the
advance of technology into lives that, for the most part, haven't changed much.
It's a troubling vision of the near-future, where computerized innovation
evolves in parallel with the lives it impacts, leaving some to wonder where
they fit in. Ford's writing doesn't explore and exploit its ideas as much as it
could. The final act, in particular, feels rushed and formulaic, and a subplot
with Frank's daughter (Liv Tyler) goes nowhere — but it does benefit immensely
from his underlying character study, which is rich, tender and artful.

Langella
is so effortlessly good as Frank, a proud man who doesn't seem to appreciate
his deteriorating mental state, that you commit to the seemingly scattershot
narrative. Susan Sarandon is similarly terrific as the librarian Frank flirts
with. Their relationship is especially handled with delicacy, reaching a
conclusion that is both startling and heartbreaking. In what seems like an
offhand subplot, Frank decides to steal a rare copy of Don Quixote for
his would-be paramour. It's a minor scene but, upon reflection, becomes a
poignant and incisive metaphor for his deluded plans to rekindle his career as
a thief, with a robotic Sancho Panza by his side.

Smart and
sweet, Robot and Frank feels familiar while you're watching it yet
consistently finds ways to catch you off-guard. It's the kind of low-key film
that's easy to overlook but shouldn't be missed.